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Apple's iBook EULA. It's kind of evil.

Basically, Apple released a free program to help people format and make ebooks. It outputs a file based on the epub format.

Sounds great (if you're an apple user).

One problem, though. The EULA says any work made with that program can only be sold through Apple.

And if they decide they don't want to sell that work, the person who made it can't take that file elsewhere to sell it. Ever.

Yes, you could just use a different program to make an ebook, but that's not the point. This EULA is a company saying the tool you used to make a file has a lot of the rights given to them. Like if .jpgs made in Photoshop could only be sold through Adobe.com.

So, while it's dumb that someone would use this program to try to sell a book, instead of making an ebook that they could sell through Amazon and the Apple store and wherever else they wanted, this EULA is still setting a disturbing precedent.

I assume they are only claiming rights on what you output with the software, not rights to the entire work.

Hate to say it, but typical apple. You want to sell stuff on their devices, you play by their rules or not at all. I guess I can see them not wanting to provide a free tool that people are going to use to do business with a competitor too...

Yeah, it's just rights on the output. The main file format is based on epub, but it can also do txt and pdf.

If they did a proprietary format, I doubt people would be so upset. But then, less people would be wanting to use it.

And so far as them not wanting to offer a free tool to sell things to competitors, the second link actually addresses that.

iBooks Author is free, so Apple deserves a cut.
How on earth does that follow? Xcode is free, and software companies have been using it and the tools that preceded it for decades to build Mac software that they’ve distributed without Apple’s help, and without paying Apple for the privilege. We buy hardware from Apple, and Apple provides the tools to enable us to make that hardware more useful so that more people will buy it. The same virtuous circle could exist for the iPad and iBooks if Apple hadn’t overreached with this ridiculous license.